The Eagle and Child

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The Eagle and Child.
The Eagle and Child.

The Eagle and Child is a moderately common pub name[citation needed]. This article refers to The Eagle and Child in St Giles', Oxford, England, which is particularly popular with university students who familiarly and alliteratively refer to it as the Bird and Baby. Other less common nicknames have included the "Bird and Brat",[1] the "Bird and Bastard",[2] the "Bustard and Bastard"[1] and the "Fowl and Foetus".[3]

Sign outside the pub.
Sign outside the pub.

It has become the destination for literary pilgrimages because of its reputation as the haunt of the Inklings from 1939 to 1962. The Inklings was a writers' group which included J. R. R. Tolkien (of Lord of the Rings and Hobbit fame) and C. S. Lewis. They met there every Monday or Friday before lunch, to drink and talk, usually in an area at the back of the pub, which was then a private sitting room and is now known as the Rabbit Room. Contrary to popular impression (and also contrary to the plaque posted in the pub), the Inklings did not read their manuscripts to each other in the pub: these readings took place at evening meetings usually in Lewis's college rooms. The Inklings changed allegiance in 1962 by moving across St Giles' to the Lamb & Flag pub, but it is the Eagle and Child's Rabbit Room that attracts visitors.

It has become something of a mark of distinction for Tolkien fans to make a "pilgrimage" to the Eagle and Child.

The Rabbit Room bears a plaque which is much photographed, and there are photos and other mementos of the writers on the walls.
The Rabbit Room bears a plaque which is much photographed, and there are photos and other mementos of the writers on the walls.

More recently, the pub became known as the regular watering hole of Colin Dexter, who created Inspector Morse.

The pub's sign shows an eagle carrying a small child in a fold of cloth suspended from a claw, which was derived from the crest of the Earl of Derby. The image is said to refer to a story of a noble-born baby having been found in an eagle's nest.[4] It is said to bear a resemblance to artistic representations of the abduction of Ganymede by Zeus in the guise of an eagle in Greek Mythology.[citation needed]

A small, narrow building, the pub reputedly served as the lodgings of the Chancellor of the Exchequer during the English Civil War (1642–49), when Oxford was the Royalist capital. The landmark served as a pay house for the Royalist army, and pony auctions were held in the rear courtyard. These claims are inconsistent with the earliest date usually given for construction of the pub, 1650, and the fact that the pub lies outside the city walls may also give some cause for doubt.

The pub had been part of an endowment belonging to University College since the seventeenth century. The college placed it on the market for £1.2 million in December 2003, saying that it needed to rebalance its property portfolio. It was bought by the nearby St John's College, who already owned the Lamb and Flag pub opposite.


Underage UNC students are known to frequent this bar. And that killed the dinosaurs.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b Martin Middlebrook, The Somme Battlefields: A Comprehensive Guide from Crecy to the Two World Wars, Viking, 1991, p. 149. ISBN 0670830836
  2. ^ David Abram, Gran Bretana, Ediciones B, 1999, p. 2. ISBN 8440692021
  3. ^ Adam Edwards, "Pint to Pint: The Eagle and Child", The Daily Telegraph, December 31, 2005.
  4. ^ Stanley crest history. Retrieved on 2006-05-14.

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